Shells on the Seashore

Monday, November 19, 2012

Last night Amy called me telling me that 'lil Eric wanted me to sing to him before he went to bed. He was requesting the "Little Green Frog" song that we call the "Ahhhhuuuumpppphhhh" song. So cute, I will sing and talk to him any night of the year. Love him, love all my "loves". They are growing up so fast. Eric is almost 22 months now.

Saturday and yesterday I spent some time doing up my laundry. Laundry can tell some things about my life. Here is the break down, 2 loads of sheets and towels, 2 loads of colored clothes- one black and blue tones the others of other colors, one load of whites. Can you tell, I like to do my laundry sometimes all at one time, it is usually out of necessity.

What I found really interesting about the laundry is that there has been a huge shift in my clothing during the last few weeks and I made 2 observations. Observation #1- the weather seemed to change "just like that" over night. My laundry mainly consisted of shorts and t-shirts for the last several months and now it is mainly long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts and long pants. The Bay Area experienced a huge change in weather, it was warm to hot and then went really cool to cold. I went from a single layer to multiple layers (I call it a whole load of laundry in one day) per day. Observation #2- October my laundry was mostly orange and black, had to keep my mojo going with my Giants (on a side note, congratulations to the World Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants). Now my colored laundry represents all sorts of colors. Just like that, my laundry changed.

Just like that, the seasons have changed. The rain has started up and the hills are going from brown (or golden as my sister and I have discussed) to short fuzzy green. The trees that were just 2 weeks ago, green and full are all shades of yellow, orange, red and are falling off the trees.

Just yesterday morning, I was scheduled to report to jury duty in San Francisco District Court (did not seem fun to me, especially since I have this week off, but thankfully God has worked on my heart) and when I called in yesterday morning I was told that my services were not needed for Monday and Tuesday but to call back on Tuesday, just like that.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Congratulations to Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants for pitching a perfect game on Wednesday night! He is only the 23rd pitcher to ever obtain such status. Wonderful team effort. Wish I would have been there. As God's sovereignity has it, I had tickets for Thursday's game but missed that game due to BART trains not working and having an upset stomach. Thankful I watched the Perfecto game on TV that night.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

WE DID IT!!! It is official! 386 students, staff and parents from the elementary school that I teach at now are part holders of an official record in Guinness World Records. Over 300,000 people shattered the old record of 20,000+ doing jumping jacks for 1 minute over a 24 hour period. Last week I got an official email with certificate included. My students don't know the good news yet but they are going to be excited, so very excited.

I'm pretty excited too. Since I was a little girl I wanted to set a world record. In fact, setting a world record was (note: WAS) on my bucket list. Check!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Last weekend and a few days into this week was my annual celebration of "the last hurrah" before summer vacation is over. Two wonderful friends from church were able to go to Mt. Lassen with me. Along with the getaway being "the last hurrah", it was also a mini personal retreat.

(At the top of Mt. Lassen, 10, 457' up. Took 2 hours 20 minutes to get up and 1 hour and 10 minutes to get down. Hike was 5 miles round trip with 2,000' climb. Absolutely beautiful up there. In the top picture, we are standing in the middle of the volcano crater, wind blowing like crazy and a wee bit chilly.)

(I am going to kinda skip around here in this post with the pictures. And who knows if it will format correctly. There were pretty flowers on the ascent to the summit.)

The weekend prior to this trip, I was up at Mt. Lassen with my dad. I had some wonderful reading time and I read this little book called Shopping for Time: How to Do It All and NOT Be Overwhelmed by Carolyn Mahaney and her three daughters, Nicole Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, and Janelle Bradshaw. Suzy too had read the book and said our weekend away could be our own personal retreat, which was one of five tips given in the book. The book lists 7 topics for you to list your priorities and prayerfully consider how you are doing with each one (thank you Suzy for typing them out for us). They are:

Grow in godliness: How is my prayer life? Are my quiet times fruitful? What area is God calling me to grow in? What scriptures address this?

Love my family: What relationship needs more attention? How can I show more love to this person?

(In this photo I am taking the photo in the middle of the crater of Mt. Lassen and can see off in the distance another volcano, Mt. Shasta)

Serve in the church: Am I using my gifts effectively? Humbly? Am I too busy with good things? Am I too busy with worldly things to serve the body?

Fellowship with Christians: Is there a relationship I should prioritize? Is there a relationship that is hindering me? What specific practical changes do I need to make so that I am investing in the right people for the right amount of time?

Evangelize non-Christians: 'Each one reach one.' Who is one person I can develop a friendship with for the purpose of sharing the gospel?

Attend to my work: Am I doing the right work? Is there a way to be more effective or efficient in the work God has called me to do?

Care for my physical health: Am I giving too much or too little attention to this?

(I have never seen so much snow up in the park in August. Helen Lake was still snowed and iced over.)

In conclusion what one or two priorities do I want to focus on for the next three to six months? What steps will I take to grow in each area?

The time away was a good time for me to reflect on a few areas that I need to grow and improve in. The two areas that I want to focus on for the next 3-6 months are grow in godliness and evangelize non-Christians.

My quiet times have been stale and sometimes non existent. Part of making my quiet times with the Lord more fruitful and consistent includes
joining the 5am club and restructuring my time. I've been getting up at 5am pretty regularly (even during summer vacation) BUT I have been turning on the tv to watch the news. My first moments (turns into several minutes, even up to an hour) were not turning to the Lord. The routine now is to program the coffee the night before, get up feed the cats, shower, dress and then sit down with my Bible, journal, cup of coffee and ready to meet with God. What a nice and pleasant change this has been for my routine in the morning and for my time with Him.

Being a school teacher for the public school system, has frightened me away from sharing the gospel with students, co-workers and parents at work. I know all the red tape and all the possible consequences. I do talk of the Lord but I am not intentional with one or two people. I am specifically praying to develop a friendship with two gals that I hope will lead to gospel opportunities.

I really enjoy Tim Challies blog and especially his daily "A La Carte" links that he posts. On today's "Weekend A La Carte" I saw the link to the hymn I last posted on and there is a link from 9Marks Blog on Singing to Build Up. Here is the post

We had one of the best music days we've ever had at Third Avenue last Sunday. It was incredible--loud, heartfelt, worshipful, and exciting, even on the songs that aren't "naturally" exciting, if you know what I mean. I remember listening to the congregation sing behind me, hearing people say "Amen" at the end of the songs (a fairly rare thing at our church), and a couple of thoughts hit me. One of my goals at Third Avenue is to work against music ever becoming an "issue" for the church. It's always seemed to me that Satan must take a peculiar pride in the tactic of taking music---which God intended to be a beautiful means of worship to Him---and turning it into a line of division and battle among His people. So a couple of thoughts hit me, and I decided to share them with our church. Maybe they'll be helpful to you, too.

First, it fills my heart with joy (no kidding!) that the success or failure of our music on Sunday mornings depends on whether our congregation shows up ready to sing. It's amazing, really. When we as a church show up prepared to engage in the service, excited to worship Christ and hear from his Word, our music succeeds in a big way---the voices fill up our sanctuary like a flood, and it's beautiful to hear. When we as a church don't show up, though, when we're distracted, down, and thinking about anything and everything but the worship of God, our music is really bad. It's quiet, empty, and completely without energy. I realize it might be a strange thing to say, but I'm glad that's how it works! I actually think it's a very good thing that our congregation bears a good deal of responsibility for how our services go each and every Sunday. When I feel that kind of weight---that my attitude and state of mind affects not just me but the entire congregation---it makes me pay more attention to my heart and engage more with the service.

Second, and closely related, I think we ought to encourage every member of our churches to sing every song in the service with gusto, even if they don't particularly resonate with the song. Every Christian has a certain set of hymns and songs that deeply resonate with them---the melody, the words, an experience they had when they first heard it---and our natural tendency is to give those favorites everything we've got . . . but then sort of check out when the next song is one we don't particularly like. But here's the thing: When you sing in a congregation, you're not just singing for yourself; you're singing for every other member of the congregation, for their edification and building up in Christ, too. In I Corinthians 14:26, Paul tells us that when we come together, everything we do--including our singing--is done for each other. Singing hymns is not just an opportunity for each of us, as individuals, to worship God in our own way. It's an opportunity for the church, as a whole, to worship God together. That means that even if you don't like a particular song, it's likely that someone else in the congregation resonates with it deeply---they feel about it the same way you feel about your favorites---and so you have a responsibility to love that person by singing that song with all the heart you can muster. In other words, don't check out on songs that aren't your favorites; sing them! And sing them loud and heartily, not because you particularly like them, but because you may be helping to edify another brother or sister whose heart is engaged deeply with those songs. Worship isn't finally an individual experience; it's corporate. And everything we do--everything, Paul tells us, including our singing---should be done for the building up of the saints.

When we are going to attend a worship service, we need to remember that we are going to worship the Living God with His children. We are fed by Him, we give back to Him (only by His grace and the blood that was shed for His own), and we edify and encourage one another. So often I forgot that church is not just for me to hear from the LORD but God has us gather together so that we may assist other in worshiping our Savior. One of the ways this is done is through our singing. My prayer is that I would go into church tomorrow to sing from the depths of my heart and that the congregation as a whole would be able to do that too. Another one of the ways to love one another in the body of Christ.

"I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me."
His Eye Is On The Sparrow by Civilla Martin and Charles Gabriel

About Me

I am beloved to the Lamb, a daughter, a sister, an Auntie, a teacher. I'm single gal living my life for the glory of the LORD, desiring one day to be a wife and help mate of a godly man, yet am fully trusting in the good and perfect plan that God has for my life for each and every day.